Shunt-circuit water-rheostat



(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J.BUOHEL. SHUNT CIRCUIT WATER RHEOSTAT.

Patented May 19, 1896.

wane/noes (I I! 6% (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

J. BUGHEL.

SHUNT GIROUIT WATER RHEOSTAT.

"Patented May 19, 1896.

lvitmaooao W w 6/) 6 4.

(No Model.) 3 SheetsSheet 3.

J. BUGHEL. SHUNT CIRCUIT WATER RHEOSTAT. No. 560,340. Patented May 19, 1896.

. awvamboz @Howu ANDREW B.sRAMAM.PNOY0-u1n0 WAsmNsYon 9 c UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

.TUIiES BUOIIEL, ()F NEIV ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

SHUNT-CIRCUIT WATER-RHEOSTAT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 560,340, dated May 19, 1896.

I Application filed December 7, 1894;. Serial No. 531,112. (No model.)

To [LZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JULEs BUcnEL, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shunt-Circuit lVater-Rheostats; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to water-rheostats, and has for its object to provide a device in which a secondary or shunt circuit is employed. In the use of electricity there are many times when the full strength of the main current passing through the circuit is too strong for the desired work, and the practice has been to introduce directly into the circuit a resistance or rheostat to check the flow or density of the current; but in the use of these devices, although the current is checked, still the electrical potential or pressure remains very high, and this is a very objectionable feature in many of the uses for which the electric current is employed. E. pecially is this true where the current is used for medical purposes, and although the density of the current is checked and regulated by an ordinary rheostat, the electric pressure or potential remains high and has injurious efiects upon the patient. I have discovered by introducing an additional derived or shunt circuit the potential is also reduced or regulated to any desired degree and all injurious effects of high potential are prevented.

My invention therefore consists in introducing an additional shunt-circuit into a rheostat and in the construction of a device by which the strength and electrical pressure of the shunt-circuit may be regulated at will from the full strength of the main circuit down to Zero.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is avertical sectional view of the improved water-rheostat, the central core and carbons being shown in elevation. Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken at right angles to Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1. Fig. at is a top plan view. Figs. 5, 6, 7,

and 8 are diagrams showing the relative positions of the terminals when turned through different angles and the corresponding current or voltage produced in the shunt-circuit.

Arepresents a glass jar, to which is screwed the hard-rubber cover 13, and the joint is made water-tight by means of a soft washer to. The electrodes or terminal plates E E are wed geshaped and are fastened to the top hard-rubber cover I5 by means of the stems Z) Z). that are molded into the said plates E E. These plates connect with two main binding-posts a and a, to which are attached the wires leading to some suitable source of electric pressure, be that primary or storage batteries or electric-light mains, such as the Edison onehundred-and-ten or two-hun dred-and-twenty volt constantpotential circuits.

In Fig. 2 the terminal plates E E are not shown, but merely a section through the core D, exposing the terminal plates F F and also exposing the connections 0 c, that are attached to the terminal plates F F by means of wires (Z (Z, that are molded into the said terminal plates. The connections 0 c are molded into the hard-rubber core D, and so are the plates F F and wires (Z (Z, which are soldered to the said connections 0 c, in order to secure a perfect electric contact. The connections c 0 pass through holes in graduated dial C, and also through the hard-rubber washer g. This washer g insulates the binding-posts a and a from the conducting-dial G, and also prevents the edges or sides of the holes in the said metallic dial from touching and closing the circuit between. the connections 0 c, which, if it did take place, would render the instrument useless.

The binding-posts a and a are screwed onto the ends of the connections 0 c, which serves not only for the purpose of conveying the current to the said binding-posts, but also to hold the washer gin place and to secure the graduated dial 0 firmly to the top of the hardrubber core D. The dial 0 has cut on its under edge or face a series of gear-teeth that mesh into a pinion P, fastened to a spindle S, and which spindle is molded into the hardrubber thumb screw G. 13y turning the thumb-screw G we act on the pinion I, which in turn acts on the graduated gear-dial C and transmits its motion to the top or cone part of the core D, and thus effects the relative change of position of the terminal plates F F with reference to the plates E E.

The top part of the core D where it passes through the hard-rubber cover B is made tapering, so that it will make a tight fit, so as to prevent any leakage of water between these two parts in case the rheostat should be turned upside down or be otherwise roughly handled. This is one of the features that renders portability in an instrument of this kind quite possible.

II is a hard-rubber plug that is screwed into the hard-rubber coverB, and has a small hole drilled right through the center to allow of the escape of the products of decomposition taking place in the water during use. By removing this plug II it enables the jar A to be filled with water and otherwise washed when necessary.

At m, Fig. 4, is shown the small Zero-pointer, which can swivel on the screw going through it, and thus be adjusted either to the right or the left in order to make the correct zeropoint of the instrument agree with the zeropoint of the dial 0. In any case this correction would require to be only very slight, as the instruments are made very accurate in the first instance, and the small adjustments are made subsequently by means of a telephone or an accurate current-indicator.

Fig. 3 shows the plates F F at right angles to the positions of the plates E E and in the position of or corresponding to the zero-line on the dial 0. Vhen in this position, no current will flow between the binding-posts a and (L2, however much might flow between the posts a and a at that time. This position is also called the neutral point or point of balance. In this position the four plates F F and E E are equidistant from each other; but the least move of the plates F F either one way or the other would upset this balance, and a corresponding amount of current would flow through the posts a and a depending on the difference of potential due to the altered positions of the said plates F F. In Fig. 3 the same plates F F are also shown dotted, and in this position they are at the same point of greatest power, the difference of potential being very little short of one hundred volts, if that happens to be the pressure at which the current is supplied to the main posts a and a.

In Fig. 4 the graduated dial C shows graduations from zero each way. The current or difference of potential will be equally as strong if this dial is turned either way, the only difference being that the current flowing from the terminals a and a will be reversed in direction. This is where the feature of pole-reverser in this instrument comes in without any special provision or any special adjustments.

On the bottom face of the dial 0 there are in Fig. 1 two stop-pins n n, that limit the travel of the carbons F F, so that there is no Fig. 8 is ten volts.

danger of bringing them into contact with the carbons E E, which, if it happened,would allow the full current from the main terminals d and a to come upon the patient,which would be attended with a certain amount of danger. These stop-pins are driven into the bottom face of this dial 0, and when it has revolved around to its limit then those pins come up against the pinion P, and thus stop all further motion.

The diagrams shown in Figs. 5, (3, 7, and 8 show the scale graduated into one hundred and ten parts, which corresponds to the strength of current used in some of the ordinary incandescent electric lights of one hundred and ten volts. The current is supposed to be passing from right to left, as indicated by the arrows, and the resulting electrometive force, pressure, or potential is shown for each one of the different positions.

In Fig. 5 the plates F F of the shunt-cir' cuit are at the points in line with plates E E or in their closest relative position thereto, and consequently as the main current enters the rheostat at one hundred and ten volts and passes out with zero volts the full electromotive force of one hundred and ten volts passes through the shunt-circuit in this position.

lVhen plates F F are moved, as shown in Fig. 6, to the points at right angles to plates E E, we have the electromotive force between a and a on the shunt-circuit equal to zero, (0,) because there are fifty-f1 ve volts each way from the plate E of the main circuit on the left where the current must leave with zero potential.

In Fig. 7 we have the electromotive force on the shunt-circuit of sixty volts, because on the positive pole a of the shunt-circuit we have a pressure of eighty-five volts, while at the opposite end there is a pressure of only twenty-five volts. Hence there will be a flow equal to the difference of pressures. I11 a similar manner the electromotive force of the shunt-circuit in the position shown in If the plates F F are turned beyond the neutral point, the direction of the current is merely reversed, while the electromotive force is indicated in the same manner, as above explained.

WVater or any suitable liquid may be used in this rheostat.

It is to be understood that any suitable material may be used in making the terminal plates of both the main and shunt circuits. Carbon has been used in the manufacture of these plates; but I prefer the use of aluminium or some such material which I find to be superior to carbon, as the decomposed particles do not form as good a conductor of electricity as is the case when carbon is used.

I clain 1. In a water-rheostat, the main circuit terminal plates and the movable shunt-circuit terminal plates substantially as described.

2. In a water-rheostat the receptacle con taining the resistance liquid, the main-circuit plates immersed therein and the shunt-circuit plates also immersed in the liquid substantially as described.

3. A rheostat comprising a receptacle containing a liquid, the main-circuit plates therein, the shunt-circuit plates also immersed in the liquid, the relative positions of the two sets of plates being adjustable.

4. A rheostat comprising a receptacle for the liquid the cover securely fastened to the top of the receptacle the main-circuit plates suspended in the liquid and the shunt-circuit plates pivotally mounted in the cover and adapted to be turned in the liquid substantially as described.

5. In a rheostat the vessel for holding the liquid the main-circuit plates therein, the holder mounted on a pivot the shunt-circuit plates carried by the holder and adapted to be turned on the pivot substantially as described.

6. In a water-rheostat the glass vessel A, plates E, E, connected to the main circuit in combination with plates F, F, connected to the shunt-circuit substantially as described.

7. A water-rheostat comprising the vessel for the liquid the cover secured to the top of the vessel, the main-circuit plates suspended from the cover and the shunt-circuit plates also suspended from the cover substantially as described.

8. In a rheostat, the water-containing vessel, the main circuit plates, the rubber holder, the shunt-circuit carbons carried on the holder, the connections passing through the rubber holder from the plates to the shunt-circuit and the cover for the vessel from which the plates and holder are suspended substantially as described.

9. A rheostat comprising the vessel containing the liquid the cover tightly screwed thereon, the main-circuit plates, the holder carrying the shunt-circuit plates and having a tapered bearing in the cover, and a screw adapted to adjust the bearing.

10. In a water-rheostat the vessel A, the main-circuit plates, the pivoted holder carry ing the shunt-circuit plates the graduated wheel 0, attached to the holder and means for revolving the wheel substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JULES BUCHEL.

Witnesses G. F. COOKER, EMILE F. BUCHEL. 

